Friday, October 23, 2009

Plane Stupid

News broke last week that a Royal Jordanian flight from Athens to Amman was captained by a female Jordanian pilot, co-pilot and an entire female crew.

It's very pleasing to see Jordanian women doing so.

What's a little irritating is that we had to break a piece of news about it as if this was some kind of a new experiment we're doing. It looks like passengers were told that the entire crew were women only after they landed in Amman. One wonders if the intent was to prevent panic in the sky from people used to seeing women locked in a kitchen washing dishes and cooking maglobah?

It looks like the reaction of the passengers was something similar to, "Despite having people from the retarded backward stupid half-brained gender fly the plane, things went OK"

Meanwhile in the US, two male pilots engaged themselves in a long debate in the sky that they missed the airport by 150 miles before they noticed that and headed back to the airport. If those pilots were women, hell would break loose and people would start demanding stripping all female pilots from their flying licence.

Here's the clip

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

How a Jordanian Company Deceived the World


In 1976, A Jordanian company named Jerash International (JI) started manufacturing a local medication for diabetes named Vaxifine. It used the same formula used to make a similar European drug but made a very minor change: Instead of the normal sodium chloride used in the European drug they used a "fresh" substance extracted from sardines named MOTS (Monogammo-Oxadizone-Tellurtinase-Sulfatase).

The Jordanian Pharmaceutical Association refused to approve the use of this drug in local markets due to the presence of MOTS. In several studies conducted in the 1960s MOTS turned out to be present in large concentrations in the bone marrow of monkeyes that were dying from a unusual wasting disease. The drug never saw the light in Jordanian markets and was about to
be completely abandoned.

However, the CEO of Jerash International was former prime minister Bahjat Al-Talhouni. He refused to let 300,000 doses of the drug be trashed. No American or European country accepted the drug because of its MOTS content. However, through his connections, Talhouni was able to push the drug to be used in several African countries. By 1977 it was on pharmacy shelves in Botswana, Togo, Benin and the Central African Republic. By 1978, Nigeria and Mali approved the drug.

In 1979, a new virus hit the African continent. The only thing common among all the victims of this virus was them receiving at least a one-week supply of Vaxifine. Studies conducted at the University of Leeds and later Harvard University proved that Vaxifine caused a mutation in the human body that allows this virus to penetrate inside body tissues and cause irreversible damage.
In 1982, Jerash International stopped producing the drug. In 1983 it went bankrupt and shut down.

More than 450 studies have been published linking the exposure of MOTS, the same chemical Jerash International was using in Vaxifine, to the development of AIDS. However very few were able to make the link to Vaxifine and are just blaming the initial spread of HIV on sexual exposure by African citizens to monkeyes. Drug companies are not interested in funding any studies to how the virus started because that will not help them sell more drugs. A drug that acts as an antagonist to MOTS was developed in New Zealand but nobody is willing to use because it can terminate all the prophets the drug companies make from selling HIV drugs.
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As most of you can tell, the whole story is fabricated. Jerash international and MOTS and Vaxifine do not exist. Bahjat Talhouni existed but he was never a part of something like this. I apologize for to his family for using his name like this. I just made up the story now. The coffee shop I'm sitting in is closing in 10 minutes otherwise I would have made up a more believable story. My point is all these stories about how H1N1 was made up in a certain lab and how vaccinations destroy people are all made up, with one medical study after another proving how safe and effective they are. But it only takes a worthless pig to make up something and put it on youtube for a bunch of uneducated people to believe it and avoid a life-saving vaccine that can usually protect them and protect them and their communities, and worse spread those lies among their family and friends. Yes pharmaceutical companies are godless money-worshipers, but they make up good things.
oh, the picture, just some candy for the eye.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

H1N1 Influenza... Are You Scared?


Good news and bad news. Bad news first, it looks like H1N1 influenza is going to be worse than the regular seasonal influenza that kills 11 thousand people every year. Good news? it's not that much worse, at least for now.

Jordan recorded its first fatality in a 26-year old. The US is recording an unusually higher rates of death among influenza patients, higher than the annual average for this time of year. However, a fact remains that the vast majority of people infected with the virus will do just fine without any medical intervention.

Pandemics like this one are concerning, not only because they kill people but also because the virus behind them is new. We don't know much about it. Nobody knows whether or not the virus will gain more strength over the next 2 months or will get weaker and stop killing people. We don't know if the vaccine will be 100% protective for everyone who receives it. We don't know if children to pregnant women afflicted with the infection will suffer any long term lung damage. However, we know enough about the virus to try to tell that some people, as expected, are freaking out for wrong reasons.

Is the H1N1 Vaccine Safe?
Yes. For as much as we know, the vaccine is very safe. It would have been better if we were able to study it for a few years before it gets released, but there isn't anything there to suggest that it will cause any damage to body organ. The risk of not vaccinating can be very high.
People with weakened immune systems due to chemotherapy or other causes should not receive the nasal form. They can get the injection.

Does the Influenza Vaccine cause influenza?
No, it doesn't. If someone got the vaccine and 3 days later got the flu, it's a coincidence. If you saw a new Pepsi commercial and 3 days later you got the flu, don't blame Pepsi for it. It's the flu season, people get the flu.

Who Will suffer the most from the H1N1 Influenza?
A lot of people who died had other medical illnesses like cancer or severe lung disease. Pregnant ladies are definitely at a much higher risk of acquiring a severe infection. But a third group seems to be at risk: young healthy people in their 20s. Their immune system produces a very vigorous response to the infection that can damage their lungs and even kill them.

Patients might suffer a little bit from the virus itself but as they recover a bacterial pneumonia follows and that can rapidly fatal. A lot of the victims of the 1918 pandemic died that way.

I really really don't want to get the flu, what should I do?
1- Wash your hands continuously. You rub your nose everyday more than you can imagine. The influenza virus can live on your hand for hours.

2- Avoid people who have influenza. They are contagious for up to one weak after the onset of symtpoms.

If someone in the room is sneezing or coughing, leave the room. I just did so. A selfish girl in the cafe was sneezing and rubbing her red nose so I just gave her Ja7ra Karakiyyeh and left the cafe to sit outside. BE SHAMELESS, and if you have the flu yourself, stay inside your f-ing home until you stop sneezing or wear a mask if you really had to leave the house.

3- If someone in your family gets the flu, isolate him/her as much as possible. Don't share the same room, towels or utensils. If someone else in the family has a weakened immune system (from cancer, medications...etc) consider letting them take Tamiflu one tablet daily for 10 days to prevent getting the infection. If a pregnant lady is exposed to someone with influenza for a long duration she has to take Tamiflu. It's nine times more likely that she will suffer a severe disease than non-pregnant women.

And, take the vaccine, both the influenza and the H1N1 vaccine. They're approved for those 6 months to 65 years of age.
Feel free to ask questions.

Friday, October 16, 2009

We'll See You in South Africa

Breaking the silence to announce that we made it to the World Cup. I know that teams like North Korea and Paraguay qualified months before we did, but I was so happy yesterday for the victory against Uruguay. Tough times like these make teams better.

In my opinion Argentina now deserved a rank of around 50 in the world, but this very team will win the World Cup under the leadership of the one and only giant, the king of football, the legend of talent, the emperor of excellence Mr. Diego Armando Maradona

Enjoy....